Our Faith

PROFESSION OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH OF THE HOLY APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; AMEN.

We believe in one God the Father, the Omnipotent, the Maker of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God; the Only-Begotten and the Firstborn of all creatures. He who was born of His Father eternally before all worlds and was not created, true God from true God, of the same nature of His Father, by whom the worlds were made and all things were created, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and became Man. He was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary; He suffered and was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and was buried and rose on the third day as it is written, and ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of His Father; He shall come again to judge the dead and the living. We profess two natures in our Lord Jesus Christ, namely that He is fully God and fully Man, and in two Qnome* everlastingly and inseparably united in the one person of Sonship. We profess that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave birth to the one Son of God become Man.

We believe in one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father; the life-giving Spirit. We profess the Seven Sacraments of the Assyrian Church of the East, namely: 1) Priesthood, which perfects all other sacraments; 2) Holy Baptism; 3) Oil of Chrism; 4) Holy Qurbana (Eucharist); 5) Absolution of Sins; 6) Holy Leaven (Malka); 7) Sign of the Life-Giving Cross.
We profess the orthodox faith and teaching of the ecumenical councils of Nicea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381) A.D.). We accept and receive all of the holy synodical canons enacted and decreed by the Patriarchs and Fathers of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. We further profess that the Catholicos-Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, presently His Holiness Mar Gewargis III Catholicos Patriarch is the Universal Pastor of the Church of the East, the Father of Fathers and Head of all the bishops of this Holy Church.

 

Hymn of Praise (TESHBOKHTA)

The Theology of the Church of the East has been stated briefly and clearly in the following Hymn of Teshbokhta
Composed by Mar Babai the Great in the sixth century A.D.
a noted theologian of the Church

One is Christ the Son of God,
Worshiped by all in two natures;
In His Godhead begotten of the Father,
Without beginning before all time;
In His humanity born of Mary,
In the fullness of time, in a body united;
Neither His Godhead is of the nature of the mother,
Nor His humanity of the nature of the Father;
The natures are preserved in their Qnumas*,
In one person of one Sonship.
And as the Godhead is
three substances in one nature,
Likewise the Sonship of the Son is
in two natures, one person.
So the Holy Church has learnt,
to confess the Son, who is Christ.


* Qnuma, is an Aramaic word. The nearest equivalent is the Greek “hypostasis” in Latin “substantia” and in English “substance”.
 

Hymn of Praise in Aramaic (PDF format)